It was a madhouse during the MOVE fashion & art event at Brookfield Place this past weekend! Although Friday was a bit umbrella-upturning with hints of Joachim, Sat & Sunday were perfect days for families to hit the mall lifestyle center and partake in the fun participatory activities from gender-bending makeovers, fashionable carnival type games, or walking the red carpet with some handsome soap opera starlugs building their quads escorting swoonerz down a red carpet to the flashing lights of the “paparazzi.”

During the event, Babesta offered up some hands-on fun in-store (as well as black and white cookies & libations) – as we invited shoppers to participate in building our windows! On one side, we had the newest hottest gift for holidays debuting super sized! Pirasta’s coloring posters were showstoppers, inspiring both “color within the line-types” and “free spirits” to stop and color with us. On the other side, we debuted the new uber cool Bugaboo Denim x Diesel stroller that sat atop a denim drop cloth. We invited shoppers to help us “Distress to Impress”. We brought all the implements you’d need and we ripped, painted, grated, cut and tweezed the denim into stylish submission!

Wouldn’t it be cool to relive “The Night at the Museum” movies and actually spend the night the museum? Yeah, we think so too! And it wouldn’t be the city if there weren’t tons of choices for an over-the-top, educational and uber cool museum sleepover – you just have to decide the theme: Animals, Intrepid or Mystery! Pack up your sleeping bags & tooth brushes: Here are some of our favorites!

American Museum of Natural History

Central Park West at 79th Street, Manhattan

From the enormous T-Rex display to the gigantic whale, bring the children along for an educational tour and flashlight fossil find while you spend an entire evening in a dim museum. Cost includes snacks and light breakfast as well. Check the website for more details and dates, to no one’s surpass, they sell out quickly!

RRRROAR!!!! Imagine having a slumber party with the lions tigers and bears, well here you have it! During this safari overnight you get a sneak peak of what the animals are up to once the suns down. Must bring your own tent and picnic dinner. Beverages dessert and late-night snack will be provided.

Step back in time at this sleepover, although only available for private parties and groups of up to 20 children this proves to be an interesting night, guests take a candlelight tour of the early American town and witness a mock murder trial at the 1837 courthouse, where they bunk down for the night.

A dream come true for any baseball fan. Let your little slugger spend a night on NYC’s Citifield. Lil Mets fans watch a game on the jumbo screen while snacking on their peanuts and Cracker Jacks…It’s a home run!

The National September 11 Museum and Memorial is scheduled to open next Spring. The neighborhood of TriBeCa is actually a few blocks from the memorial. We feel it in our hearts to keep close tabs!

President and CEO of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, Joe Daniels, believes that the fences of the construction will soon come down for good! Currently, the Memorial Plaza located at 20 Vesey St., between Church and Broadway, requires multiple security checks, but Daniels hopes that the newly opened Memorial will only require a security check-in, upon entering the building. This building will stay due to millions of people who visit daily while the Visitor’s Center located on 90 West Street will be moved to a new location that is not yet decided, as the new Memorial opens.

Daniels also mentioned that his crew are planning multiple procedures to protect all valuables from another flood. There is talk of building extra pipes, water proof doors, and of emergency protocols. The Memorial means so much to not only the whole country, but to us in New York. They will make sure to store important items in deeper grounds as well as on higher grounds.

Hopefully, all monetary and contract issues get solved immediately, so that the building of the Memorial can hasten and be ready earlier. We really appreciate the hard work that everyone is putting into creating the new Memorial.

Thank you TribecaTrib for all your lovely news about our neighborhood. Click hereto visit their site!

The answer? A city without…water…

Imagine a city without water? New York City would not be the awesome New York City without the bridge and ferries! Governor’s Island would not be an island, either! In order to celebrate how awesome water is, Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance is hosting A City of Water Day!

A City of Water Day will have so many fun activities for families, teens, couples, and friends. There will be a boat tour you can sign up for here. You will have to provide a $3 reservation fee that is fully refundable. There will also be a Waterfront Activities Fair, Free Ferry Rides, Live Music, Amazing Food, Water activities (kayaking, canoeing, rowboats), and more! You can also have your own picnic and ride bikes.

MWA started this event to show that water brings us all together. We should be thankful for water!! This is a great event to learn about the importance of water while meeting new people.

Be sure to check it out! Afterwards, maybe you can go visit the mahattanhenge!

While looking through our awesome Pinterest site, we came across a sand castle and decided, “Why not search and look for more followers who created their own sand castles!?” We discovered so many sand castles that were created by young children, adults, to professionals. All we can say is, “WOW!” At Babesta, we love summer and everything that makes summer fun– from BBQs to pool days, to Water parks to Lemonades. We can see that making sand castles are definitely a fun way to spend your time at the beach!! We created a fun slideshow filled with sandcastles that were posted by some of our social media websites’ members!

Next time you visit the beach, be sure to bring your shovel and pails, your awesome beachwear, your sunglasses, sunblock, and your creativities! Game on, show us your handiwork!!

The Statue of Liberty has stated that she wants to allow visitors! On July 4th, she re-opened the doors to all to come visit and get tours. After Hurricane Sandy, she had stopped accepting visitors because she had to renovate and fix all broken pieces. Now, she is even allowing visitors to enter her crown, since it was closed in 2011.

We were asked to guest blog for Bubble and Speak & decided to chat about the Punk exhibit at the MET, From Chaos to Couture, that we attended back in May and the synergies the message had on the kids’ market. Of course we were totally stoked, as Bubble and Speak is the awesome blog of one of the most inspirational trade shows that takes place in London and debuts lots of indie brands that we love & follow. Read it here:

To boot we worked up a little smattering of super cool Punk style for kids at Babesta! No, ‘Lil Joey Ramone, we don’t want to be sedated (usually) & we wouldn’t miss any of your adorable declarations of independence, rages against the machine and anti establishment antics!

From top to bottom, left to right:

Splatter shirt by A for Apple; Declare Independence tank by MIMA, Why? tee by NuNuNu, striped leggings by Sourpuss Clothing, shorts by A for Apple, Spraycan tee by Munster Kids, studded belt and Sex Pistols bib by Sourpuss Clothing, Skull soft soled shoes by Chauchas. **Things come in and out of the shop like wildfire, so if you see something you can’t live without, give us a ring & we’ll try to hook you up with it or introduce you to the latest & greatest. Babesta Threads: 212 608 4522.

DIY and crafting lovers! An Etsy Craft Party?! In New York?! No way!

We’re totally into the whole DIY scene – so fun, and today Etsy is hosting a super-cool Craft Party. This year’s project is to create embroidered and sewn hand puppets, uniquely decorated by you. Etsy will then donate these wonderful projects to organizations such as: Room to Grow, Children’s Aid Society, and Babby Buggy. To boot: photobooths, raffles, gift cards. . . !

It will be held in the Tobacco Warehouse at the Brooklyn Bridge and treats will be provided by Brooklyn’s well-known food trucks: Coolhaus & Kimchi Taco. It will be held today (June 20, 2013) from 5PM- 8PM, at 26 New Dock Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201. It will be a great opportunity to participate with your children, families, friends, or with all! Don’t miss out! And be sure to send us some photos; we would love to see how much fun you had!

So I was just chatting with my daughter about what she was planning to make for her science project (she’s studying inventors & inventions). She was describing a personalized weather machine she was seriously considering (biting off a bigger meatball than I would do!) and I asked her who would choose rain? She countered: think of the pairings – I want sun, you want rain, together: Rainbow! Touché: it’s “you’ve got your chocolate in my peanut butter” thinking. Better together.

Pondering how we would create such a thing, I stumbled upon the MOMA’s new exhibit Rain Room that begins May 12. While I doubt we will be busy at home tinkering with some GPS based weather contraption, (what I wouldn’t give today for some yesterday-like weather), we will definitely wait in line to check it out next week at the MOMA.

The room is designed by Random International, and it’s taking place in a lot next to the museum. Basically it’s pouring, but when it detects you, the rain opens up to let you by, giving you the feeling of ‘controlling the weather’. Sounds super fun!

So I was lucky enough to go to F.I.T.’s 7th Annual Conference on Sustainable Design today and got to listen to D.J. Spooky speak about the his art and music exploring the intersection of urban culture and the environment; where nature, art and design converge. His new book, “The Book of Ice,” is based off of a 6 week trip he took to Antarctica where he was clearly struck by the vastness and the depth of “archival” material nature has provided. With a whirlwind of swipe (yes, lots of ice & penguins, photos, inspiration, movie clips & music, he danced around some very interesting topics. He even ’sampled the landscape’ using an algorithm based upon the fluctuation of temperature during his trip…

Part of what was interesting, especially for us city folk, is his demonstration that hip hop, traditionally urban, is affected by and is not worlds away from the natural world. At the end of his very interesting, pretty heady, a bit disjointed but definitely thought provoking presentation, he declared: “It’s the Era of the Remix.”